A shadow on the waves caught my attention. Too dark and mobile to be kelp, it moved with the rhythm of the ocean, slipping in and out of view, as hard to pin down as a broken reflection. A whiskery snout nudged the water’s surface and two eyes like glossy marbles fringed by thick lashes regarded me with a mixture of amusement and curiosity. Without warning, the creature disappeared in a trail of bubbles. I felt its absence manifest as a hollow ache in my chest. I began to pace along the wrack line, picking my way between strands of slippery kelp and broken shells as I scanned the breakers, searching for a sign. A pulse beat in my throat, like the echo of some long-remembered grief. Come back!

As silently as it had vanished, the seal reappeared, popping up less than twenty metres away from where I stood, just the barrier of the ocean surging between us.

I laughed, delighted.

‘That’s Hilde.’ Gerrit appeared beside me, wearing the same outfit as yesterday, although his trousers were more rumpled and a smear of egg stained his collar. He looked older, thinner. Dark shadows under bloodshot eyes.

‘She comes back every year around this time. I like to think it’s her, anyway. She isn’t tagged so there’s no real way of telling, except for the markings. She was one of my first.’

‘First what?’

‘First rescues.’ He raised a hand. As if magnetised, the seal surged through the water, her nostrils flared. Up close, I could better appreciate her colouring, the lichen-like blooms mottling her grey fur. There was something of the hungry waif about her. She watched us carefully with dark liquid eyes. Her pungent smell wafted towards us, overwhelmingly fishy.

‘I used to feed her,’ Gerrit said. ‘Stopped eventually. Not good for them to become too complacent. She’s a ringed seal. In the Arctic, they have to fight to survive on their own. You don’t usually find them this far south. A storm drove her into my arms when she was just a pup. She’s lucky the sea delivered her to me instead of a polar bear or a hunter who might have taken her skin.’

‘And you named her Hilde? Don’t you think that’s a bit morbid?’